Hunter Pleads Not Guilty In Fatality

Man Says He Shot At Deer Not Jogger

Hunter Pleads Not Guilty In Jogger's Death

LITCHFIELD — A hunter charged in the shooting death of a jogger pleaded not guilty Monday, saying that the fatal slug was aimed at a deer he saw bounding through the brush near the Morris Reservoir.

"I shot at a deer; I killed this guy," a crying Robert W. Cook told a state police detective within minutes of the Nov. 11 shooting of jogger Kevin Elliott, 33, of Plymouth.

Cook, 42, of 330 S. Main St., Thomaston, pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter with a firearm. He entered his plea in Superior Court in Bantam before Judge Charles D. Gill. In the arrest warrant, state police charged Cook in Elliott's death, saying he died when a slug Cook fired struck him in the neck.

Since the case's outset, authorities have said Cook fired at Elliott from a distance of about 240 feet, mistaking him for a deer. But in the warrant, Cook is quoted as saying he saw a deer, fired at it, missed and hit Elliott.

"Based on all the information I have ... what's misrepresented is that Mr. Cook shot at Mr. Elliott," said Cook's lawyer, Zbigniew Rozbicki of Torrington. "Mr. Cook shot at a deer that was somewhere between the road and Mr. Elliott. It is as if all the bad luck in the universe converged in that one incident."

Two minutes after he had walked into the woods off Pitch Road near Route 109 in Morris, Cook was about 50 feet from the Morris Reservoir, according to the warrant. Cook, who had been hunting for 10 years, had a friend's 12-gauge shotgun. He had sold his own last year after losing his interest in hunting.

"I heard something move," Cook said in the arrest warrant. "I turned toward the direction of Pitch Road and I saw a deer jump from the brush. It was a doe which was approximately 30 to 40 yards away on the other side of the brook."

"After I saw that it was a deer, I took one shot at it. I was using slugs. I shot as it bounded up into the air. After I shot at it, the deer kept bounding towards the road so I don't know if I

hit it."

Bruce E. Lemay of Oakville and Robert J. McNamee of Plymouth were hunting with Cook, but the three men were in separate areas of the woods, the warrant says. Lemay heard the gunshot, and then heard Cook yell, the warrant says.

"I got one, I got a deer," Cook yelled, Lemay told a state policewoman. Cook then walked down the dirt path toward Pitch Road. When he got to the road he looked north and saw something lying there, the warrant says.

As he got closer Cook realized the form was a man. He then ran south toward his car, screaming for Lemay and McNamee, the warrant says.

"I shot someone, I think he's dead," Cook shouted, Lemay told police.

After the shooting, Cook was taken to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington to be treated for shock. Two weeks later state police charged him with manslaughter.

A key element in a charge of second-degree manslaughter is that the state must prove that the accused person acted recklessly. Before entering the woods, Cook had checked a silver-colored pickup truck, which was not Elliott's, that was parked on Pitch Road. He was checking for a placard that would have indicated occupants of the truck were hunting in the area, but did not find one, state police said. That check indicated Cook knew there might be someone other than a hunter in the area, the warrant says.

Cook also fired his gun toward the roadway, a violation of state hunting regulations. "The allegation is he behaved in a reckless fashion and killed someone," said David Shepach, Litchfeld assistant state's attorney. "He was only a short distance from the roadway."

The state's attorney's office decided against also charging Cook with firing across the roadway because, Shepach said, "we felt this [manslaughter] charge appropriately reflects the conduct [of Cook]. The sum total of the conduct."

When asked if state police had checked for deer tracks in the area of the shooting, Sgt. Joseph Destefano, who supervised the investigation, said he could provide no more information beyond what was in the arrest warrant.

Cook is scheduled to appear Dec. 22 in Superior Court in Litchfield. Cook has returned to work as a member of the Thomaston highway department, but is still completely shaken by Elliott's death, said his lawyer, Rozbicki